July Afternoon at Deadman's Hollow Corral....

Lee to Gabe:  "When your dad yells, he's being intense....not angry."

Abbie to Lee:  "I need my hair up...because the pigs like to eat my hair when I clean out the feeder."

Pigs: (Squealing!)

Ellie: (screaming)

Ann to Aaron: "Get the baby!"

(on crutches) 

"Don't run!!"

Lizzie and Matt: Daddy/ Daughter dance.....

The moms close the deal....

Family portrait...Landry tries to wipe off the "pig dirt"....and it's off to weigh!

Meet Me at the Fair.....

'Meet me at the Fair'

It's Atchison County Fair Week! 4-H kids and FFA students will have delivered their projects to the Velma Houts building for display and judging. There may be homes where this hasn't involved a mad rush, but at our farm, the atmosphere was always one of pure manic panic.

Baking dishes would be piled in the sink; pincushions would be on the kitchen table, photos would not yet be framed on their poster board, and there would be a frantic search for both the index cards to pin to the project...and the fair book with the directions for how to display. Millie led sewing projects for a generation; I'd like to know how many dresses, skirts, tops, and now quilts, she has finished up the day...or the night...before Fair Day.

'Don't tell me the sun is shining

Anywhere but there....'

Our fair experiences have always been more like an Alfred Hitchcock movie than a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.

Allow me to elaborate. Instead of the neatly tied up loose ends and prize winning hog in the movie 'State Fair', our fair projects were fraught with tension and an underlying feeling that something might go wrong. From the first...or let's admit it, the second year of our kids' experiment with 4H calves, we learned more about Murphy's Law than the finer points of showmanship. There was never a 'Rudy' moment or a 'Rocky' comeback, the slow but inexorable climb to the top brought about by grit and determination. There were ups...but lots of downs.

Consider the year the steers escaped...over the fence....because they were part of the Hurst cow herd and selected over the years for the ability to see fences as a challenge, not an obstacle. The neighbors four miles over eventually noticed them in their herd, but by that time, we had conceded the project and decided to take our vacation a week early. The calf lot grew up in weeds and Lee and Ann, ages 9 and 8, got a reprieve.

Ask any of our kids and they will continue the saga. The steer that bloated and missed the show. Doc Nims put a vent in his side which then spewed foam during the digestive process. Pretty hard to fit a steer with an overflow valve. The steer that bit his tongue in two. The steer that broke his leg. The steer that wasn't quite dehorned enough. This isn't as bad as it sounds; over the years, Lee, Ann and Ben raised and fed and showed more than 50 steers. But every time we lost an animal, it was after 250 days of getting up early to feed and check the water, then repeating the process later that day or night.

The ostensible reason to have an animal project is not for the honor...or the glory...but to make a profit. Even after Grandpa Charlie, or TPC, or Burke Lumber, or Bill Smith Trucking paid the premium at the auction, I don't think we ever made that goal. Now that the next generation is walking down the gravel in their tall rubber boots to check the feed and 'walk' their pigs, their parents are willing to admit the truth. Money? It's just a fiction perpetuated by adults with previous experience and an ulterior motive.

Kids with livestock learn consequences. Many of us have the recurring nightmare about taking the final for a class we never showed up for. But our kids still awake fearing they've forgot to water their steers...or left the gate open...or didn't check the feed...even though the fence was torn out years ago and the cow lot is now a mum patch. That level of guilt...or call it responsibility....serves them well as adults. Dealing with loss and adversity is something kids can learn by playing sports, but it is a life lesson made more consequential by caring for another living being. Doing your best is not always good enough and will not always bring reward.

There are pictures in every August photo album. One year Ann had a steer that showed well enough to win Reserve Grand Champion, though what she remembers best is that the steer stepped on her foot on purpose.

There are also pictures of Ben telling the judge a story about the placid potbellied steer he showed his first year.

There are photos of Lee year after year, lined up with her steers alongside her siblings and cousins...showing for reserve grand one year. And getting a trophy for senior showmanship. Consolation prize for never bringing home a big ribbon.

The trophies are still in the closets in my house. But this week Blake and I will be on the bleachers as Aaron and Lizzie, Gabe and Abbie don their boots, stick a brush in their jeans' pocket, and try to keep their well washed pigs where the judge can see them.
   

Unlike Blue Boy in State Fair, we don't expect any trophies to come home with this bunch, this year. But there will be stories....and memories...and the stuff "dreams" are made of!

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The Once and Future Fair

How can I not wax nostalgic at Fair time? Years ago, before we had kids, Blake and I would get up before sunrise and head over to the Atchison County Fair to help wash 4H calves, check out the competition, and lend moral support.  The Fair took place late in August back then, and the mornings were cool and heavy with dew.  Blake's brother Brooks was the same age Aaron is now, so I imagine he didn't mind having some extra help calf wrangling in the wash pen.

  I was no expert on cattle judging, but I relished the neighborliness, the burnt coffee in styrofoam cups, and the fresh glazed doughnuts laid out for those willing to be early risers. Back then the Hurst family showed Simmental cattle, big long bodied steers that were eating machines and could tip the scales at  three quarters of a ton of beef. And there were kids less than 5 foot high controlling those beasts with a jerk on their halters and a stern look....and there were kids whose calves were completely in charge, dragging the rope from their erstwhile master's hand, trotting around the ring dragging the rope through the muck,...or ...worse yet, raising their tails high and heading for hole 5 or 6 of the Rock Port Country Club just beyond the cattle panels.

Flash forward.  Years pass; styles change and the Simmental behemoths that could leap like a stag have been replaced by smaller sleeker black steers with noses that could sip from a teacup. The kids of the '90s had  lovely Chianina steers to show, shiny, but as skittish as colts.  They felt just fine to the judges, but hang em on a rail and they might, but probably wouldn't, grade choice.

 Our family had a routine by then....have a rodeo right after July 4th, a very tense occasion during which  Blake would try not to scream at the womenfolk for not stopping the hurdling terrified 1200 pound bovines and the womenfolk would pretend anyone else in the family couldn't do better at lassoing said animals.

   After the steers were tied and haltered, the girls spent a week bringing feed and water to them before they attempted to lead them to the water tank and back again. If these milestones were accomplished without injury to either girl or beast, the steers were turned loose again, still haltered, to eat and drink freely, with the underlying assumption being the cattle were used to the girls and, once caught, we could catch ém again. Finally, the kids practiced with their show sticks, leading the calves around the feedlot, setting them up, and praying every single time that one of the steers would not take a notion to balk.    By that time, Blake would leave home every morning and come home every night asking 'Did you brush your calves?'  The curry combs, clogged with dust and hair, hung on the barbed wire as evidence of daily grooming.

All those years of showing did yield a couple of trophies, but we figured they were more like winning a door prize than evidence that we were calf jockeys.

  No, our real accomplishments were the three tough accomplished unflappable showmen we raised, capable of coaxing, combing, calming, all the while keeping a weather eye on the judge.  The steers were never much of a money making proposition, but there is no way to put a value on good habits, perseverance, and dedication, not to speak of stoicism when a critter breaks a leg two weeks before the show and has to become hamburger.

The kids of the kids are raising animals now.  Aaron's hogs will be bacon and chops and roasts in the freezer in a week or so.  He will have money in his account to start the process all over again.  Matt and Ann are already discussing how to make Aaron's project, not just good eating, but good looking as well.  Aaron's grandparents (that's us!) are justly proud of how he has improved in the ring from last year and we know how attentive his folks are to his work ethic when it comes to doing chores!

Just a year or two ago, the US Department of Labor proposed some new regulations for children on farms that would have limited the kinds of work kids can do, even on their family's farms.  The uproar was so great that the rules were withdrawn and kids like Aaron can still work and chore like our children did and boys and girls have for generations.  The proposed rules landed on the agriculture industry like a bolt from the blue: stunningly arbitrary and ignorant of the inherent family nature of US agriculture.  Even though this was a proposal from the Federal level, it is a perfect example of what  Amendment 1 is trying to protect Missouri farmers from: a misguided even if well meaning impulse that would fundamentally harm Missouri agriculture.

Amendment 1 is not the result of paranoia. Farmers know that "they"are really out to get us; we need only marginally keep up with current affairs from coast to coast to understand that what we consider productive ways of growing grains, animals, fruits and vegetables are suspect.

We look for affirmation from our neighbors and fellow citizens that places like Atchison county will continue to grow kids from town and country who learn to do their chores every day, be responsible for another creature's well being, and finally, take those lessons to heart and pass them on to another generation. Look at the youngsters at any county fair; read the bloggers on social media; count the number of blue jackets at your local school.

 Farmers not only grow our food; they grow our future.  

It's A Hard Life

Not a crisis.  Not a tragedy.  Not on the scale of personal loss or disaster.  Nothing like that.

But still,  a day at work that would lower your shoulders with the realization that every day is not onward and upward; every day is not progress.

We work pretty hard at the greenhouse to minimize the amount of pesticide we use; spraying isn't inexpensive.  There's equipment to maintain, equipment to purchase, the cost of the chemicals themselves, and the time and effort of spraying itself.  Spraying has to be done after hours, when no one is watering, no one is picking orders, no one is transplanting, and no one is shopping.  Pesticides come out of your hide, your time. Customers don't love chemicals...but they don't want insects either.

There is also an unavoidable feeling of failure and guilt.  And grumpiness.  And anger.  Even after close observation, and good habits like cleaning up greenhouses and mop up of weeds, still....there are bugs.  There is disease.  There are cloudy cool days...the weather warms and April brings insects.  These are our plants, our spread, our work of art, our production, our crazy quilt.  A level of mortality is to be expected.  But me against the bugs: why? Are there not sufficient barriers already?  Is there not all the world outside to munch on?

It's April and a young man's fancy turns to....swine.  Aaron's 4-H project arrived: six little piggies curled up in their hut next to the #15 greenhouse.  Aaron dons his knee high rubber boots these days and chores after he gets off the bus at the farm.  Like many kids, this bunch has a pecking order and it became apparent the littlest gilt was getting picked on with a chewed tail and torn ears. One morning last week Matt decided she would need to get away in order to survive.  Soon she had her own crate of pallets on the graveled floor of the number 9 greenhouse surrounded by straw bedding and fiber pots of flowers that smelled remarkably like her previous piggy surroundings (these fiber pots are 'green' all over constructed of, among other natural substances...poop. Smells like it, too, after watering....)  In the warm sunny environment, we hoped she would gain strength and eventually rejoin her companions.  

But...several days later, this little pig had a bigger problem.  Sometime during the night, the farm dogs had broken into the greenhouse and  gotten between the slats of the pallets to injure her further.  The jury is still out, but Aaron may only have five pigs for his project, not six.

And....why?  

Is it Aaron's fault?  Certainly not.  These are pigs that get personal attention...names even.  This is a nature problem, not a nurture shortage.  This is pigs being pigs.  

And why did Bernice, Ikey, and Lucy suddenly go berserk and tear into the greenhouse after it had been a pigpen for 5 days undisturbed?  This is Lucy, who will barely stir from the middle of the road when I drive up in the morning.  Bernice, whose blood used to lead her to tree coons in the power lines, but now is hobbled by the same creaks and groans all creatures of a certain age suffer.  And Ikey, not convinced he is a dog at all after being the original third member of the Schlueter family, preceding Aaron, Lizzie, and Josh.

They are loving companions and fixtures of the farm. But they are mere dogs being dogs.

When this is your day to day life, you accept these setbacks, these minor tragedies, these ongoing reminders of an imperfect world.  You don't like them; you curse the needless destruction and waste and ugliness and are liable to lash out in frustration, like Matt did: "Why can't they just leave it alone!  Its just a pig; why can't it just live?"

It's a good object lesson for anyone outside of agriculture, this intersection of uncontrolled nature and civilization.  Despite our best efforts, despite our intensive care, bad things happen under our stewardship.  Bugs suck on plants and we have to use chemicals to save them; pigs chew on other pigs because they can; loving family pets revert to their wild side, base and cruel in our view, but  nothing if not natural.  We humans are not the perps, the reason, the cause; and often, even though we wish we could be, we cannot be the cure.  

It's just a hard life.